Spool-holder.



v a citizen of the United States, residing at No.`

UNTTED STATES Patented January 31, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

SPOOL-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 781,217, dated January 31, .1905. Application iiled August 17,1904. Serial No. 220,995.

To all whom/l it may concern:

Be it. known that I, ADA E. MILDEBERGER,

58Franklin avenue, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York,

' have invented new and useful Improvements in Spool-Holders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to spool-holders adapted for use upon a work-table, upon a sewingmachine, whether the spool-spindle of the machine be vertical or horizontal, or upon a tape or the like by which it is suspended from the neck or garments ofthe wearer. It involves a peculiar cage-like spool-containing box provided with ahinged cover and with expansible vertical and horizontal sleeves Ato vlit upon a machine-spindle or to prevent the cage from rolling upon a plane surface.v

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation, partly in section, of the box,

the spool beingshown therein in dotted lines. l

.Below the hinge is aslightly-conical sleeve l, preferably consisting of a spirally-wound piece of sheet metal having'one side xed to the box, as by soldering, for example, one margin at least being free, so that the internal diameter may be varied by winding or unwinding adjustment. Below this sleeve is a second similar sleeve J, fixed to the box in a vertical position with its smaller end uppermost. The body of the box is provided with wide vertical slotsV K, extending nearly from top to bottom, but not wide enough to allow any ordinary spool to pass, though wide enough so that the spool within is distinctly visible, whereby its size, color, andcondition as to quantity of thread remaining may be known without opening the box. The interior of the b ox is materially larger than the corresponding dimensions of any ordinary spool, and the lateral margins of .the slots are rounded and roughened, s'o that they afford a frictional surface upon which the peripheral surface of the spoolends will not easily slip. Upon the bottom of the box normally rests a loose disk L,

preferably having its upper surface of a friction-producing character-for example, felttion, and the spool within it beingusually too large to assume a crosswise position is also erect. There is no spindle for the spool, either above or below, upon which the thread unwound from the spool, but not Vdrawn out, may become fast; but in any case the slight friction upon the lower end surface of the spool prevents momentum from causing any material unwinding, especially if the thread pass out upon the side most distantfrom the point where it leaves the spool, for in that case the peripheral surface of the spool is drawn against the roughened margin of one of the slots. If the box be in horizontal position, the unwinding pull upon the thread tends to roll the spool up y one side of the box, and hence gravity resists momentum and prevents serious unwinding. If the spool be small, so that it may lie transversely in the erect'box, the disk is first removed, the spool dropped in, and the inverted disk Lis placed upon the spool, where its frictional resistance under the Weight of the disk, which may be as great as is desired, proves quite adequate to prevent the undesired rotation. It is obvious that the disk may in like manner be. placed upon "any large or small erect spool or ball of thread. The sleeves may be compressed to fit a small spindle or may be pressed upon a much largerl spindle, the construction described evidently making this quite possible. When the box rests upon a table or the like, the two sleeves form a T- like base, preventing the box from rolling, even when thread is being drawn from it, and

it is therefore very useful for such employiently at hand when the user is moving from place to place, a ribbon or tape may be passed through the upper tube and be pinned to the clothing or passed about the neck.

What I claim is- 1. As a spool-holder, a box provided with lateral openings for the passage of the thread and having' on one side and in the Same plane a longitudinal spindle-sleeve and a transverse spindle-sleeve, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a spool-holding boX of a depth greater than the vertical dimensions of the spool to be placed therein, of a Weight having aV frctional surface, loosely fitting in the boX, and adapted to be placed above or below a spool, in the box, to retard the rotation oi the spool.

3. The combination with the cylindrical box having the hinged cover and the lateral .slots with roughened margins, of the two spindlesleeves in the same plane, and the heavy nternal loose disk.

In testimony Whercotl I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ADA E. MILDEBERGER.

lVitnesses:

ELsIn M. PACKER, GEORGE E. MINER. 

